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Published on 01/12/1998 All articles from this issue

Letters to the Editor

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A dog's plea: Owners, please pick up

I have four legs, lots of spots, and a big problem. I can't talk! If I could, I would tell all my four-legged, loving friends to "do their business" on their owner's lawns and sidewalks.

The way I see it, and I have wonderful eyesight, second only to my sense of smell, if they don't clean up after my friends "do their business" when they are taking them for a walk, apparently they wouldn't mind if it was on their own property.

Doggone it (I can't believe I said that), if I could, I would clean up after myself. I know my owners don't enjoy doing it. But, they are responsible, considerate, caring caregivers. (We can use '90s buzz words too!)

In fact, they take three plastic bags with them on all of our walks. One is for me, one is in case I have to "go again," and one is for anyone they see who has not picked up after their four-legged, loving friends.

The excuses some people give for not picking up after us are incredible. I don't understand how they can think that it is acceptable to leave "messes" anywhere.

I've never seen a human "do their business" outside and leave it for others to see, smell, or step in. I would growl and growl if I saw that. Please print my letter. My four-legged, loving friends and I don't want to lose our privileges of walking in our beautiful city. To be confined to our own yards would be sad for us indeed.

Licks and wags to all.

Kramer

c/o the Gosland familyLos Altos

How about some controls for cats?

Equal rights. What's good for dogs should also be good for cats. A pet is a pet is a pet; and owners have a responsibility. Why is it that dog owners are required to have a license, keep them under control (fenced yards or a leash), pick up after them while on a walk (leashed), while cats are not subject to any control?

They are allowed to be outside to wander as they please. They run freely, marking their territory through the neighborhood by spraying on doors and wheels of cars; use boat and car covers, and outdoor furniture as their scratching posts; and leaving their feces in the most desirable places, our yards and lawns.

Do gardeners appreciate cat fertilizer in their gardens? If it's so good, why isn't it sold in stores?

Domestic cats belong indoors, not in the wild where they kill birds and dump their germ- and parasite-infested feces.

Cats do fit the criteria of a pest species. They are highly mobile, disease-carrying, fecund breeders that kill native wildlife, (an estimated 638 million songbirds annually in the U.S., according to the Minnesota Ornithologists of Biological Sciences Union).

Cats carry and transmit the bartonella bacterium that causes swollen lymph nodes, joint pain and fever in healthy people, and skin lesions in AIDS patients. Cats also carry salmonella, campylobacter, cryptosporidium and giardia.

Pregnant women or AIDS patients should not change litter boxes, since cat feces contain toxoplasmosis, a protozoan parasite.

It's about time to pass leash laws for cats and for their owners to become responsible.

P.R. Mordecai

Los Altos

For the record, the City of Los Altos does have a leash law on the books, requiring dogs to be on a 6-foot leash when they're not in the back yard. No such provision has yet been made for cats. - Editor.